After nearly two decades of working in the private practices of others, Dee decided to buy her own practice in 2005 from the hospital where her husband worked at the time.

At first, everything was great.

The thrill of being a practice owner was invigorating, and—as Dee will admit—the newfound mantle of “ownership” cast a happy, king-of-the-castle veneer over every emerging obstacle and problem.

But after five years of life as a small business owner and PT practitioner, the gilded veneer of “ownership” had worn completely off. Dee was tired, frustrated, and left facing some stark realities—both economic and operational—about the future of her business…

…Realities that required immediate change if her practice was going to survive into 2011.

(Remember when I said more on this later?)

So, Dee sat down, looked at the numbers, and identified for main metrics she’d need to boost in order to keep her business afloat:

New patients

Patient visits

Collections

Overall Production

To get back to being a healthy, profitable practice, Dee discovered she needed more new patients, more visits from existing patients, better collections processes, and more productivity overall.

That would mean putting a more effective billing process in place, installing an employee training program for the first time ever, measuring key metrics on a monthly basis to assess the health of the business, implementing a cancellation policy, and partnering with a collections agency.

The result?

Dee and her husband went from 90 visits per week, to more than 300 visits per week in just six years—a 300% increase—and their once abysmal arrival rate is now higher than 95%.

But the MOST important change Dee made to transform her business?

Well, you’ll just have to listen to the episode to find out…

By the way, don’t forget to share your feedback about this episode with me on Twitter @DrJoeSimon with the hashtag #DeeBills